Blood of the Covenant
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Sylvester's character has shown a lot of development over the season what with everything he's gone through. Despite this, he likely has bad days at times, and on one of these Happy and Toby help and support him through it. - Written for sheisagenius for the fic exchange on AO3.


**This fic was for sheisagenius, and was another pinch hitter fic I did for the fic exchange on AO3.**

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Happy walked slowly across the garage, not _lost_ in her thoughts – she could see the way Walter darted up to talk to Paige as soon as the Navy man left the room, and she saw the grandfatherly affection on Cabe's face as he read a book to Ralph – but certainly distracted by them. Sometimes it was a blessing to be able to seemingly withdraw right into herself. Sometimes, it made her feel as if she was the only one processing and dealing with the small issues echoing through the team. There was the stress Ralph was undergoing with all the drama at his school. The way Walter stiffened whenever Tim Armstrong smiled at Paige. The way Paige always glanced at Walter before responding to any offers from Tim to go and socialize.

And, upsettingly, the way that the light in Sly's eyes seemed to be out more often than not lately. He would get fired up, passionate, and then he would wilt as soon as he got alone.

Happy noticed. Paige was the 'normal,' Walter and Ralph had the highest I.Q.s, and Toby was the behaviorist. But Happy always noticed.

She glanced over at her boyfriend, her eyebrow twitching as the word passed through her mind. Boyfriend. That felt wrong. Not Toby – nothing about Toby felt wrong. But...fourteen year olds in computer class were boyfriends. People who knew each other for only a couple of weeks were boyfriend and girlfriend.

There really should be a word for longtime best friends who transitioned to lovers. A distinction. Something that told people that this already ran deep. The history was already there.

Toby didn't notice her looking his way. He was studying a magazine, his feet propped up on the desk. She bit her lip. He was the behaviorist. Mentioning her concern about Sly to him might just lead to an overload of psychoanalyzing. But as irritating as that could be some times, at others it could be downright essential."

She crossed the room, nearing the desk. "Hey," she said. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

He smiled up at her. "What is it, my lovely little dove?"

Happy ignored the term of endearment. He was way too fond of those. "Have you noticed..." She trailed off. No. If something was off, of course he had noticed. "Has Sylvester been acting a little..." she made a motion with her hands, "strange to you? Lately?"

"Our Sly – vester is always acting a little strange," Toby said, flipping the page of the magazine. "But you know what? We all are. That's what makes us special."

Happy smacked him on the back of the head. "I'm serious, dummy. He's been a little off. I know he's disappointed about being rejected from those shows. And today he found out for sure that he needs legal family to go with him if he wants to do Family Feud. We don't count."

"Oh my gosh," Toby said. "Could you _imagine_ us on Family Feud?" He gave a chuckle. "I can just imagine the answers Walter would give. Now that it's been brought up, I'm actually kinda disappointed that we aren't able to...to do it." Toby's lighthearted tone faltered and he raised his eyebrows, noticing Sylvester walk into the room. "Yep," he said, glancing at his girlfriend. "It would seem that you are right, Hap. Our little brother's having a bad day. Hey Sly!" He raised his voice so the younger man could hear. "Come on over here a moment."

"Please tell me we don't have another case," Sylvester said, his shoulders slumping. "I'm so tired."

"No," Happy said. "No case. Cabe's not even here. We were, uh..." she glanced at Toby. "We were a little worried about you, buddy."

"Worried! About _me_?" Sylvester gave them both a smile. "I'm fine." He nodded, and kept nodding. "I'm fine."

"Sly." Toby lowered his feet off the desk and closed his magazine, sitting straight up. "You do realize that you are talking to a Harvard trained psychiatrist who..."

"I know your credentials, Tobes," Sylvester said, "look...I appreciate you guys looking out for me and all, but really, I'm fine."

He wasn't fine. His posture, expression, breathing patterns, _god she was starting to think way too much like Toby,_ all were indicators of discomfort, of agitation, of mental distress.

"Sly." Toby looked at Happy. "You can talk to us. You know you can always talk to us."

Sylvester stared at them, his façade slowly softening. "It's just a bad day. That's all. I can handle that. No worries."

"Sometimes handling it means talking about it," Toby said wisely, raising his eyebrows. "You're not weak because you need to get some feelings off your chest. We've all been there. And we will all be there again."

"Sly," Happy said quietly, "Doc here may be pushy and obsessive but you know _I_ wouldn't be pushing if I wasn't worried. You know me."

Sylvester hesitated, adjusting his glasses. "I guess I'm just...I'm having a rough time." He shrugged, sinking down on the desk. "No one else is letting me on their game shows. I still need all this money in order to buy the naming rights to the ward and I know that there are other ways in which to honor Megan's memory but that was a really special place for both of us and it would mean so much to her and to me if we could get it and I was going to talk to Paige about this but she's got a lot going on right now and I don't want to..."

"Sly, my man, take a breath," Toby said, holding up both hands to signal to Sylvester to stop. "Respire, my friend."

He paused – and realized just how out of breath he really was. "Sorry." He put his hands on his knees and wheezed in an attempt to catch his breath again.

"You're gonna be okay, buddy," Happy said. She wasn't referring to his current wind and he knew it. "We'll find a way."

Sylvester lifted his head. "Yeah. Because our combined I.Q. of nearly seven hundred wouldn't have figured out a way already."

Toby and Happy both picked up on the level of frustration in his tone. "Sly," Toby said. "You know that we've done the seemingly impossible before. This won't be as hard as...as all the things that Team Scorpion has accomplished. We once made water flow backwards, remember? Or...or that day last year? When we met Paige and Ralph and saving the day required plugging a laptop into a moving plane? And remember the other week, when we went to Vietnam, solved a case, and came back all on the same day? Now _that_ was wild." He smiled. "And we haven't failed yet, have we? At anything we've tried to do together? You know the answer. We haven't. Because we don't lose."

"I just think this...this is a situation where I may be in over my head." He sighed. "I've been overwhelmed before. But not...not in this way."

"If you don't get in over your head," Toby said quietly, gently, "then how will you ever know exactly how tall you are?"

"You did not make that up," Happy said. "I've heard that somewhere before." She thought back, trying to remember where she had heard it. For some reason, the memory was in Paige's voice, not her own internal monologue. It was a very Paige thing to say – she'd probably read it to them on a day when someone else was having a difficulty. _See, Sylvester? We are essential to one another._

"I'm sorry," Toby said, a measurable amount of sass present in his tone of voice, "I may have forgotten our mission here. Is the goal to be making Sly feel better, or are we trying to come up with original material? Because recycled inspirational quotes can work very well, thank you..."

Toby was doing such a good job of feigning offense that in spite of himself, Sylvester gave a little laugh, then smiled at them. "Thanks, guys," he said. "I do appreciate it. You guys...all of us here..." he furrowed his brow. "You know, the fact that I've even made it this far, it's because of everyone here. You all know how crippling my anxiety can be. My ability to look at everything rationally except life." He bit his lip, looking amused. "That sounds like a paradox when I say it out loud." His face grew more solemn again as he regarded Happy and Toby. "You guys – all of us – Walter and Paige, Cabe, Ralph..." he smiled. "I know that things are...better...with my real father than they were before, but my true family?" He pointed firmly at the floor. "They're all right here."

"Blood is thicker than water," Happy said, and they grew silent, nodding, acknowledging the depth of it. All of them knew that the full quote – _blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb_. Relationships that were obligations – and nothing but – weren't as strong as the ones that were fashioned by choice. By mutual need. Those relationships would always outlast the ones that you were expected to have, especially if the relationship was rooted in nothing but that.

And everyone on Team Scorpion had that sort of relationship with each other. Sylvester, sitting there talking about how grateful he was for Happy and Toby, probably didn't realize how much his support and his no regrets attitude that was the relationship he had with Megan had helped form the foundation of his two friends' romantic relationship. "You know," she said gently, "that all goes both ways."

"You don't know how tall you are until you get in over your head," Sylvester said quietly, as if he was only now processing Toby's – or whoever's – words form earlier. "I know how tall I am, now," Sylvester said, looking at Happy and Toby, his eyes damp. "Megan made me realize I'm a...I'm a lot taller than I thought I was. And you guys too, and I'm sorry I'm getting really sappy here." He laughed, embarrassed, removing his glasses and wiping his eyes with his arm. "But thank you. Both of you."

"What's..."

The three of them jumped at the voice, and in unison they turned to see Paige and Walter standing a few paces away. He still seemed to be processing the scene; her head was cocked curiously to the side. "What's going on here?"

"We're just having some brotherly bonding time," Toby said, jumping up and slinging an arm around Sylvester's shoulders. "That's really what you are, you know," he told Sylvester.

"Who are you calling someone's brother?" Happy said, feigning insult.

"You doing okay there, Sly?" Paige asked gently, clearly noticing the drying tears and slightly red face that accompanied the youngest Scorpion's presentation.

"Yeah." Sylvester nodded rapidly. "Yeah. I am. I just...I was stressing about the money I need for the pediatric ward. I needed a little pep talk, I guess." He smiled as Paige joined the hug. "I don't know what I'd do without you guys."

"But..." Toby said, holding his pointer finger out. "What would you do if I sang out of tune?" He asked. Happy cocked her head – he wasn't even singing. Toby continued, this time speaking in a rhythm. "Would you stand up, and walk out on me?"

Walter frowned, clearly confused, as a smirk of realization came over Paige and Happy's faces.

"Eh? Eh?" Toby said, looking around at them all. "Come on, everybody! Paige, Paige, you sing, jump in here."

Her expression suggested that she was going to resist – or rather, it suggested that she wanted everyone to think that – and then she smiled, tossing her arm around Sylvester's midsection. " _Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song, and I'll try not to sing out of key_."

Sylvester grinned, joining Paige as Toby jumped back into it. " _Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends. Mmmm, I get high with a little help from my friends._ "

Happy glanced at Walter, and though neither joined the three person line of slung arms and steady rocking from side to side, the two of them sang along with the others.

 _"Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends_."


End file.
